In-jokes and references/games, TV and movies
<< In-Jokes and References ---- Blizzard has included many in-jokes and pop-culture references in various forms throughout WoW. Games, TV and Movies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Finkle's Skinner is listed as property of Finkle Einhorn, alluding the revelation in Ace Ventura "Finkle is Einhorn! Einhorn is Finkle!" Austin Powers There is a cat critter in the new Naxxramas instance named Mr. Bigglesworth. If you kill it, Kel'Thuzad (himself) will yell "No!!! A curse upon you, interlopers! The armies of the Lich King will hunt you down. You will not escape your fate..." apparently he really liked that cat. This is a reference to Dr. Evil's cat of the same name from the Austin Powers movies. The "Curse" is more than likely a reference to Dr. Evil's line "And when Mr. Bigglesworth is upset...people DIE!" Bring it On T'shu in Sporeggar located on the west side of Zangarmarsh will give you a quest once you have achieved a certain reputation level with Sporeggar and are level 63 or higher. The quest is entitled "Oh, It's On!", an evident reference to a highly popular line in the movie "Bring it On". Captain America The Paladin Talent Avenger's Shield is a reference to Captain America (who is a member of the superhero group known as The Avengers), and his ability to ricochet his shield off of multiple targets and return to him. Final Fantasy VII On the northern end of Sunstrider Isle in Eversong Woods, you can find two blood elf children named jane and Nova. This is a reference to Jenova in Final Fantasy VII, who is also known as Sephiroth's "Mother". Forrest Gump In Stormwind, there is a flower shop named Fragrant Flowers just east of the Trade District, on the canal between it and Old Town. The man who runs it is named Bernard Gump. Just beneath his name is the title ; Thus, his full title is "Florist Gump", a pun on the name Forrest Gump. In Auberdine (in Darkshore), there is a fisherman by the name of Gubber Blump. This is a play on Bubba Gump Fishing. Ghostbusters *In the Mage Quarter in Stormwind there are three mages sitting in a circle having an extended conversation. Eventually one of them will say “wouldn’t that be bad, like crossing the streams bad?”, a reference to the movie "Ghost Busters". *Egan's Blaster is a ranged-slot item used in the quest The Restless Souls that starts in Eastern Plaguelands. "Use Egan's Blaster on the ghostly and spectral citizens of Stratholme. When the restless spirits break free from their ghostly shells, use the blaster again - freedom will be theirs!" This is also a reference to the character Dr. Egon Spengler from the film. *One of the soldiers stationed at Chillwind Point complains that his job "definitely isn't worth another five thou-a year!" In the movie "Ghostbusters", Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) says the same thing when his team votes for almost certain death to save the world (while fighting the undead, as it were.) *In the mage-specific quests Investigate the Alchemist Shop (Horde) and Investigate the Blue Recluse (Alliance), the player is asked to search an area for ghosts, fight them, and trap them in "containment coffers." Gone in 60 Seconds The quest in Hellfire Peninsula called "Shizz Work" has you digging through Felboar excriment for a lost set of keys, very much like a scene from Gone in 60 Seconds (the remake with Nicholas Cage), where some of the car thieves are taking a large dog for a walk to get him to "release" some previously devoured Mercedes keys! Kill Bill The Superior quality sword, "Sword is a reference to Hattori Hanzo, legendary ninja and sword maker, who plays an important role in Kill Bill Volume 1, where the Bride gets a sword from him with which to enact revenge against her former associates. Also, a gnome rogue called Lefty that can be encountered in Blackrock Depths during the Tier .5 arena encounter has a skill called "Five Fat Finger Exploding Heart", which will deal huge amounts of damage if allowed to stack five times. This is in reference to the technique the Bride in Kill Bill learns from her ancient master, Pai Mei. Krull At Onyxia's Lair, in the first lava pool you come to on the right side, you can find a floating star shaped glaive and next to it a charred skeleton. A reference to the 80's SciFi-fantasy movie Krull in which the powerful glaive weapon was found in a flowing river of lava in a dragon's cave. Matrix Caretaker Alen, an Argent Dawn NPC in Lights Hope Chapel sometimes says: "I should have taken the translucent pill" Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail Gzhun'tt in Sporeggar located on the west side of Zangarmarsh will give you a quest once you have achieved a certain reputation level with Sporeggar and are level 63 or higher. The quest is entitled "Bring Me a Shrubbery!", an evident reference to the Knights-Who-Say-Ni in Monty Python's epic movie. Nintendo Games *Un'Goro crater is filled with references to old Nintendo games: ** Linken, and the quests he sends players on, are references to the "Legend of Zelda" series, and its protagonist, Link. ** The kodo beast, Dadanga, is a reference to the very first 'Legend of Zelda' game. One of the early bosses is a triceratops who is weak against bombs. The old man who gives you hints on how to progress says, "Dodongo dislikes smoke.", a trait shared by Dadanga. ** Larion and Muigin, two dwarves, are an amalgam of the characters Mario and Luigi. They are both dressed in overalls of color similar to how Mario and Luigi are dressed in the 'Super Mario Brothers' games. The use of fighting Bloodpetals in their quests refers to Nintendo's original business (dating back to 1889), printing traditional Japanese playing cards called Hanafuda used for a game sometimes known as War of Flowers. Old School During the Horde quest to get 300 First Aid one of the dying soldiers refers to seeing "Blue" which is similar to a Will Ferrell line from the movie. Oz During the Jail Break quest in Blackrock Depths you run across several prisoners named after characters from the TV series Oz. Crest Killer is Chris Keller. Jaz is Jaz Hoyt. Ograbisi is Adebisi. Shill Dinger is Schillinger (interestingly, he appears to be a Scarlet Crusade member while Schillinger is a white supremacist). Finally, Tobias Seecher is Tobias Beecher, a protagonist of sorts in Oz and the only one of these characters you don't kill in the process of the quest. Pink Floyd During the quest "Triage" dying soldiers will make comments as they pass into critical condition and before death. One of the soldiers says "Goodbye all you people, I'm leaving you today... Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye." which is a line from the song 'Farewell Cruel World' on Pink Floyd's album, 'The Wall'. Samurai Shodown Unlike most server names which are taken from characters or places within the game, Haomarush and Genjuros are based on the characters Haohmaru and Genjuro/Genjyuro from the Samurai Shodown games. Magazine features and photos from Blizzard HQ has shown that the company has (or at least has had) a Samurai Shodown setup in the office. Sling Blade "Swamp Eye" Jarl in Dustwallow marsh is looking for a blade, a certain blade... "some folks call it a moonsteel broadsword, I call it a swing blade..." is an almost word for word of Billy Bob Thornton's character Karl in Sling Blade, "Some folks call it a Kaiser knife, I call it a sling blade." Snakes On a Plane At Nesingwary's Safari in Nagrand, there is a crashed plane. On that plane, there are snakes. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In The Exodar, There is a small group of Draenei that congregate together. Their names, Curzon, Tobin, et al, are references to the past lives of the character Dax from ST:DS9 Star Trek: Enterprise In Area 52 there is a character named Chief Engineer Trep. He wears a blue shirt similar to his TV counterpart, Chief Engineer Trip. Star Wars: Episode One: Phantom Menace (See above for an alternative theory on this reference.) If one inspects the racers in the Shimmering Flats, there is a distinct resemblance to the podracers piloted by Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba. Follow the racers around the track to find skidmarks leading away, towards a cliff face. The racer similar to Sebulba's can be found about halfway up, crashed and swinging on the side of the cliff. The race announcer, a 2-headed ogre named Fobeed, is also a reference to the race announcer in TPM, a 2-headed creature named FodesinBeed (aka Fode & Beed). Star Wars: A New Hope On the first crossing to Bloodmyst Isle from Azuremyst Isle, you will find a small camp by the name "Kessel's Crossing." Kessel himself will give you a quest called The Kessel Run, which he requires you complete in under fifteen minutes in reference to Han Solo's completion of the Kessel Run as mentioned in A New Hope "in under fifteen parsecs." After completing this quest, a character later will make reference to "having completed the Kessel Run in under fifteen minutes. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi In the Priest specific quest text for , Ogtinc or Greta Mosshoof (depending on your faction) will inform you that, "The green drake Morphaz is known to be immune to all forms of poison and disease -- many druids died to bring us this information." This is a reference to the quote made by Mon Mothma in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." Terminator 2: Judgment Day * The hut to the left of the dock coming inland to Ratchet has a small table in it. The table has a very primitive and clunky looking robotic hand in a glass case. This is an obvious reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day when the hand from the original The Terminator is displayed throughout the movie. * In addition, Ossirian the Unscarred yells "You are terminated!" every time he kills a player who has aggro. Theres also a skeletal hand lying near a river of lava in Lower Blackrock Spire, which is a reference to one of the final scenes of the movie. * Also, the new Warlock pet performs Terminator quotes when summoned, or dismissed. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984), scientists develop a way for a rocket car to pass through solid matter (a mountain). In Thousand Needles not far from the raceway, near the path to Tanaris, you can see skid marks that lead into the side of the mountain. In Tanaris, on the opposite side of the mountain just west of Gadgetzan, the skid marks continue and lead to the crashed wreckage of a rocket car. In the movie, this scene took place on salt flats exactly like Shimmering Flats. The Lost Vikings The three lost dwarves in Uldaman have the names of that of the Lost Vikings (except that Baleog has been changed to Baelog), another game developed by Blizzard when that company used the name Silicon & Synapse. They also drop various items that resembles their characters in the game such as Olaf's All Purpose Shield. The fact that the opening of Ironaya's chamber requires the Shaft of Tsol and Amulet of Gni'kiv, that have the name of "Lost Viking" spelled backwards. The Princess Bride Upon touching the globe that completes the attunement quest for Blackwing Lair, adventurers are greeted with quest completion text that reads "Have fun storming the castle!". This a quote of Billy Crystal's character Miracle Max. In UBRS, during the Rend event, adventurers successfully defeating waves of enemies are treated to Nefarian crying "Inconceivable!" This is a repeated quote of Wallace Shawn's character, Vizzini, the Sicilian mastermind. One of the flirt voice emotes for the orc male is "This is true love, it doesn't happen every day". This is a quote from the Princess Bride, Westley says it to Buttercup at the start of the movie. In Southshore, the stable boy is called "Wesley", referencing the book and movie. Appropriately, he also has blond hair and carries a rapier. In the Eastern Plaguelands, the priest NPC for t3 gear is Father Inigo Montoy. Three's Company In the Lower City area of Shattrath City, there is an NPC chef named Jack Trapper. John Ritter's character in the 70's sitcom was Jack Tripper, a chef living with 2 women. Category:Blizzard Entertainment Category:Lore In-Jokes and References Worms There is an engineering item engineers can make that is titled explosive sheep, an item that has occured in the worms franchise. In World of Warcraft, it follows you around for a few minutes, until it either finds an enemy, or the few minutes are up. In Worms, you get to control the sheep and crash it into an enemy.